martinlest2

My public email (it's on all my AVSIM uploads, so it's no secret!) is: martinlest at yahoo dot co dot uk Thanks Jan

Very nice. You did that? Art was always my worst subject, at school and since! Is the bitmap downloadable??

Until PMDG or whoever issue an FS9 787 (I'm not holding my breath!!!), with an authentic panel, I'll make do with this. It's not a bad panel on the whole, even if it isn't much more than 50% accurate. Or maybe someone will upload something better to the library one day. Maybe I could even have a go - I've got all the software to create the 2D panel and as I am taking a (well-deserved!) year off teaching work at the moment, I have the time too. Where are the bitmaps? We'll see... Martin

Have you been following Nvidias new release Gsync. You will be amazed by it. Will solve everything. No, I haven't. Thanks for the heads up.

Is there a more authentic panel available? I agree with what you say, but can live with this one. It's freeware and is more detailed than any of 'the competition' that I have located, so I don't like to 'complain'! I don't think I am going to start tinkering with it myself at this stage..

Yes, I should have known, you are right: I didn't think of that!! :lol: TDS a/c base ('tds787lot.zip' in the AVSIM library is a full a/c download), with panel 'fs2004_tds_b787_panel_project.zip' (flightsim.com). Martin

I know that this isn't going to help much now, but maybe you should start a backup folder? I have a copy of my FS9 and FSX folders, as well as the relevant C drive/AppData folders and batch script that will update them with new or changed files/folders when I run it. I also keep a copy of that backup on an external hard drive and also an old backup that I never update (on my mother's PC!) just in case something gets lost and I don't notice in time. Plus I have an installation of FS9 out-of-the-box, with all the original Microsoft files. And I also have kept a copy of the zip/rar files of every addon I have ever downloaded over the last twelve years. Maybe excessive, but, in theory at least, my FS9 installation is idiot proof! (Famous last words - I shouldn't be writing this!!!). There's no way I could ever reinstall FS9 from scratch, so my backups are vital (if I ever need to start from a clean install of FS9, I just have to overwrite the default folders with my backups): I guess you have the same kind of complex setup. Never too late to start a backup! Martin

There is still the other problem of FS9 crashing if you reload the flight or aircraft - the problem is with GH_Sound.gau, part of the Groundhandling gauge (which I find very useful to keep a/c at a constant taxi speed - so many pull ahead and need constant braking). If you disable the gauge like this, in the panel.cfg file, then all is OK.. just in case anyone else wants to use the gauge with this plane: //gauge07=GH_Sound!dsd_xml_sound3, 0,0,,, ./sound/Groundhandling/Sound.ini You just lose the gauge sounds - but the gauge still works as usual.

I am posting this here at I think it may be a 'technical' issue. It's not a serious problem, just a niggle, but I would really like to know what might be the cause. I am totally baffled... I have downloaded an a/c (TDS b787). All switches are set to 'Off' ('=False' in the aircraft.cfg file) - battery, avionics etc. and when the plane loads, the panel is dark, with all instruments off, as I'd expect. However, if I simply reload exactly the same aircraft via the FS9 menu, or reload the flight ('select a Flight'), the instrument panel instruments are now all lit and the lights etc. come on when you turn the switches, even though the battery switch is still set to off. The same happens if you load via a saved flight (.flt).. Anyone any idea why this happens? martin

To be fair, when you say 'it overwrites' the gps gauge, the zip file for the panel doesn't have an .exe file to install the panel, so it doesn't actually install or overwrite anything itself. (I always install exe files to blank folders first, to see what they are doing). You simply unzip the gauge files into the gauges folder, so you must have had the option whether to overwrite any existing files or not. Easily done by mistake though of course. I too have several backups of my FS9 folder (over 100GBs now), old and new, so that I can recover, but I am always careful about adding new gauges to the gauge folder, looking at each one any programme wants to install. I think that, if space isn't a problem, keeping all addon gauges in the aircraft panel folder is a good idea, (my FS9 gauges folder is now over 2GBs), but it's too late for that for me now: it would take me for ever to associate each gauge in the FS9/Gauges folder with the appropriate aircraft (plural). I have tried various programmes that purport to do this and also find and delete unused gauges, but I always ended with missing gauges in one cockpit or another in FS9, so have given up trying. Martin

Nice addon this. I am using it with the TDS b787. But can anyone say, why when I have entered cruise altitude then select Calc Vnav and EXEC, all my airspeeds are still blank. The flight plan looks OK otherwise, but the entries are all like this: ---/FL290; ---/FL390 and so on. I have to add the airspeeds manually for each waypoint to get VNAV to operate correctly. The guide says they will be calculated automatically. Thanks, Martin

OK, this was my fault (of course). The panel CDU (Bendix King - nice programme) seems to need to have the IAS speeds at each waypoint entered manually.. then things are fine. The manual says that the airspeeds will be calculated when I press Calc Vnav then EXEC, but they are not in my setup (probably, once again, my mistake, though I don't see what I am not doing as yet). I have cruise altitude set OK... Obvious when you look at it, but I am the world's least observant person (and I am more used to CDUs from PSS & PMDG, where this isn't necessary!).

OMG, why on earth didn't I notice that in DXTBmp, it's so blindingly obvious now? I'd better upload a fix.... Many thanks

Hi, I have uploaded a repaint of the TDS b787-8 in Jet Airways colours, but I have noticed since that there is an odd problem with the fuselage. In my repaint, when the wing lights are on, a rectangular section of the fuselage is lit - which looks very odd. I can't see any difference between my bmp file and the corresponding one from other repaints I have downloaded. The screenshots compare mine with an Air India livery. The files are TD788_LBody_Center_T.BMP and TD788_RBody_Center_T.BMP The rectangle which lights up in my repaint is clearly present, just below the main fuselage. My file is: jet_airways_-_tds_boeing_787-8.zip If anyone can put me right here, I'd be grateful as I have spent the whole evening trying to sort this out (obviously in vain!). Thanks, Martin

Nobody else encountered the A/Thr problem? It's pretty annoying..

I downloaded this plane some weeks back but have only just got round to flying it. It's quite a pleasure. I've downloaded a couple of dozen repaints and also Ed's interim fixes too - will install them tomorrow. I have a couple of problems though: I have installed the panel from 'fs2004_tds_b787_panel_project.zip', which is pretty good. However the one major glitch I have at the moment is that the autothrottle isn't working properly. It engages OK but then every five minutes or so, the IAS value suddenly flips to '000' and, unless one is there to correct it, the plane obviously falls out of the sky. Anyone else have this problem? I don't know if it's the a/c, the panel., or the result of the two together. Seems OK in descent, but in ascent and cruise, not. I am setting IAS realistically (though even if I weren't I don't see why that should cause this: I'd just get an overspeed warning)... For now, I have to fly the whole flight with the throttles. Anyone else had a similar problem? The other is that, if I make any alterations at all to the panel.cfg (I like to have FDSFX and Pushback panels there, so have simply added them, as I have done a hundred times before with other a/c), reloading either the flight or the plane causes FS9 to crash. I have the util and debug windows just as per the pdf manual. Again, ideas on this welcome!! Thanks Martin

I said reload, not remove... I don't know what you mean by 'reload' then. If you 'reload' a saved flight after you have removed some of the AI folders and the sim looks exactly the same, with the same a/c you have taken away at the same stands as before, in what useful sense is that reloading? As I say, it's doing just that which meant I spent hours trying to find the faulty a/c.

Another way to reload AI aircraft is to save a flight and then load it. Sadly not: that is exactly what I was doing (and moving between airports between reloading, just to 'make sure'), but the rogue a/c still showed up. That's what foxed me. It was only by restarting FS9 that I found the correct a/c.

Solved !!! :p0814: :Party: I'm afraid the answer is so simple, it's disappointing. I have got another Tu204 in my AI traffic, and it was one of the first folders I removed to see if the a/c was still there... and it was, so I discounted it (I tried again, just to check)... I now see that the blank plane is one where, in the aircraft.cfg, the texture= line refers to a folder that doesn't exist. The only difference this time is that in between removing and adding folders to test things, I shut down FS9 and restarted it. Before, I moved to a different airport and then back again: that works to reload the AI traffic, but only sometimes.. Well, now I have used a different texture folder for this plane, it shows up with the chosen livery. Simple.... No idea though why the wings were showing OK - there is only one bmp for the whole aircraft.. One lesson learned is that Traffic Explorer doesn't (as was mentioned above) necessarily choose the right aircraft when you view it! The problem was nothing to do with the plane it identified ... One of the great advantages of FSX is how one can load new stuff without restarting the programme, of course! Thanks for the input, Martin

No ... :-)

I will have another go at some stage soon, but as I say, I did spend literally hours on this! It was one of those very frustrating cases where I removed my AI traffic folders from FS9/Aircraft in batches until the blank plane disappeared (I concentrated on Tu204/214s, as this is at UUEE, Moscow). When I removed the Tu204 folder, the a/c vanished. Success, I thought. I replaced the folder - a/c back again. Removed the folder once more ... aircraft still there!! Incredible. as I said when I posted, I had expected to fix this very quickly, I usually find it takes less than 15 minutes. Not with this one.. I have a lot of traffic.bgl files, and I need to experiment, but I am sure this a/c is part of my default traffic.bgl file, not one of the small addons for individual airports. I have already tried assigning a different livery to the a/c but it made no difference.. I replaced the faulty a/c with another in TTools and recompiled, but it's still there.. I haven't written down all the troubleshooting steps I took to be honest, there were many of them, but I will get back to it and post back when I have had another go. Thanks! Martin

Will have another look at this soon and post back... Can't stand the idea that I can't fix this!!

Yes, it flies. Not static ...

I have spent hours and hours now on this and have had to admit defeat. Does anyone recognise the a/c from its shape? Traffic Explorer (from Traffic Toolbox) tells me it is a Tu204 (yes, looks like one) and sure enough, when I choose 'view', the sim goes straight to the plane. I find the entry for the plane (tail number) in the aia Tu204 folder's aircraft.cfg. BUT ... even if I remove that folder completely from the sim, the a/c is still there. I backed up my main traffic.bgl file and then used TTools to remove all Tu204s from my AI traffic (I replaced every mention in the aircraft txt file with an a/c I know appears OK). But even with the new bgl file the blank a/c is still there! So, assuming Traffic Explorer has the right ID for this a/c, why can I not get rid of it? I have tried replacing the bmp file with one that is OK, but no joy. I checked the mdl and air files. They are as they are supposed to be. The wings look OK, which is odd, as there's only one bmp file for the whole a/c (aia_tu_204_ps90_t.bmp).... I tried the RR variant, just in case, but same result. Finally I edited the air file in the folder to make the aircraft flyable. Then, all the textures show just fine when I load it as my user aircraft. But the Ai plane next to me (presumably the same one?) is still plain grey (wings apart). Any ideas? I expected to solve this in 10 minutes (I usually manage to) but this one has me beat! Thanks, Martin

Yes, this is of course a third party aircraft - it's the Project Tupolev Tu154M. Pretty complex machine. The cfg entry is to help save and reload the panel states (not that it works all that well).